This Readers Guide for Listen for the Lie With Spoilers will have a plot summary, my quick take on the book, my review, plus protected spoilers, your questions answered and the ending explained! Is this book based on a familiar plot line for you?
Listen for the Lie: Jen’s Quick Take
- The “girl who returns home to solve/face the murder of her friend” plot. It’s a popular one, as I’ll detail below, but (I think) a good one!
- The main character does have amnesia, which isn’t my favorite plot device
- It also has a Podcast element, which is another popular 2020s story element
- The vibe reminded me of A Flicker in the Dark, so if you enjoyed that, try out Listen for the Lie, and vice versa!
- To be published on March 5, 2024 by Henry Holt Books. Thanks to the publisher for the advance copy for review. I read this book in February 2024.
Review of Listen for the Lie with Spoilers
Listen for the Lie has a premise you’ve seen before
Yes, the “solve (or re-investigate or be blamed for) my friend’s murder” premise gained popularity with Veronica Mars in the early 2000s and has been chugging along ever since.
We’ve seen premises like these over the past year in books like:
Everyone Who Can Forgive Me is Dead
Plus other titles that will occur to me later.
Though my best friend and I have plans to grow old together, Golden Girls-style, I like the premise a lot. I’m a huge Veronica Mars fan and enjoyed all the books listed above.
Listen for the Lie also reminded me a lot of A Flicker in the Dark, which had a slightly different premise but a similar overall vibe, plus both main characters have an illicit relationship with a journalist or podcaster.
What I did like About Listen for the Lie
Some people found Lucy overly sarcastic. The fact that everyone in her hometown clearly thinks she’s a murderer doesn’t help. Her internal monologue, which includes saying to herself that she’s going to harm or kill people, is an intrusive thought pattern of many people with OCD.
Plus, since Lucy has amnesia, she can’t remember Savvy’s murder. That’s the overall question of the book: does she have amnesia to block out the terrible thing she did OR is her amnesia (combined with trauma and possible intrusive OCD thoughts) making her think she did it.
For me, the relationship between Lucy and the podcaster, Ben, was one of the most interesting parts of the story. Should she trust him? Was he impartial, or out to get her? It felt a little like None of This is True! I did enjoy the podcast transcripts and thought they were a great addition.
Also Lucy’s grandma was a fun character. I enjoy some humor in my suspense novels!
Listen for the Lie has a plot device I’m not fond of
My only gripe with Listen for the Lie is that I am NOT a fan of amnesia plots. They were huge back in the early 2000s, especially in the YA (young adult) space.
My main issue with an amnesia plot in a mystery or suspense story is that it prevents any real investigation or the possibility of the reader figuring anything out. An amnesia plot plunges the reader into a murky space of hazy and confusing memory fragments. But you might enjoy being in that space more than I do!
“Narrator with Amnesia” is a variation of the unreliable narrator, another huge trend of the mid 2010s that kicked off with popular books like Before I Go to Sleep (2011) and Girl on the Train (2015) and continued with books like Sometimes I Lie (2017) and Stay Awake (2022).
Lucy, the main character in Listen for the Lie, tries to regain her memory with the help of a psychologist. Being back in her hometown helps her FINALLY remember what happened the night Savvy died.
Will you like Listen for the Lie? If you’re a fan of the books I mentioned above, then I think YES. I did enjoy it even though I’d have preferred a regular unreliable narrator to an amnesiac.
So: Did Lucy kill her best friend Savvy in Listen for the Lie?
Spoilers for the Ending of Listen for the Lie
SPOILERS BELOW! To protect readers who HATE being spoiled you will need to click on the blue “Show Me” box below and log in with a Grow account, Facebook, or Google. By doing so, you will be added to my email list and receive weekly updates about new books! For more information on why I protect my spoilers, please read this post! If you are having any issues check this tutorial OR leave a comment below as I want to help!
NEW: Listen for the Lie Movie News!
Listen for the Lie is set to be adapted into a streaming series (this was announced in April 2025) so it could be a while before this gets to a TV screen near you!
Please leave your thoughts and questions in comments, and if you don’t want spoilers, do not read the comments!
I listened to the audiobook for this, as listeners had said the book lent itself to an audio presentation. This is true to the extent that the book recreates the podcast segments with intro and outro music and a separate male narrator, which was a neat touch, but the female narration tended toward the abrasive, rendering the main and secondary characters somewhat annoying and over the top. The book might, in fact, read better than it plays.
Also, I agree that the amnesia aspect is not only frustrating but, especially, less than credible when Lucy conveniently and inevitably recovers her memory wholesale at the book’s climax.
Finally, halfway through the book I thought “Oh, so __________ is the killer,” using my daughter’s tried and true method of determining the killer by pinpointing the character least likely to have done it.
To be fair, this may have paled somewhat in light of the fact that I’d listened to the last two Tana French books on audio, both beautifully written and expertly produced, and so much richer than this that it could only seem shallow and coy in comparison. Regardless of what Stephen King may think.
Hi Michael! Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on the book. I agree that books with podcast elements tend to make good audiobooks.
I am also not a fan of amnesia as a plot device. I prefer mysteries where I get all the information I need to figure things out!
I like your daughter’s trick. When you watch adapted murder mystery movies, the most famous actor almost always plays the killer.
It’s hard to compare a suspense book with a Tana French. I am currently working on a project to help mystery/thriller/suspense readers find the books they will like, rather than relying on the hype and publicity. I hope when I’ve got things set up, you will try it!